Natural Health Cures

Written by Jared Vincenti

For simple coughs and colds, we have become accustomed to taking pharmaceutical products that treat our symptoms, but not the disease. If you have a runny nose or a scratchy throat, you'll probably just pop a pill that keeps your body from noticing that you're sick. You eventually fight off the infection, but if you take enough synthetic pharmaceuticals, your body can become immune to the treatment.

Other Approaches to Cures

If you have a simple cold, your symptoms probably include sinus pressure, a runny nose, and a sore throat. To "treat" this is with over-the-counter drugs, you would probably take a painkiller and a pseudoephedrine. The painkiller, probably aspirin or ibuprofen, will keep your brain from receiving the signals that tell it that you're uncomfortable--but also may thin your blood and prevent clotting. The pseudoephedrine stops your nose from running--but also fires up a number of other systems and can leave you sleepless or edgy.

On the other hand, if you take a more natural approach, you'd start by approaching the problems. Your body is fighting off an infection, so you should give it drugs that boost your immune system. Vitamin C and zinc are proven to be crucial parts of the immune system, and herbs such as echinacea are known to help with the immune response.

With just this example of the common cold, it becomes clear that there is more to curing a disease than treating the symptoms. By and large, natural remedies for many common ailments address the root of the problem, and have minimal side effects. Before just popping another pill from the medicine cabinet, see if there's a more natural way to treat your disease.